How the West Won--part 4

First of all, happy birthday, America. This is a good time to be reviewing and summarizing Rodney Stark's historical book called How the West Won. His contention is that we have been sold a pack of lies and misunderstandings by others who had an agenda as they offered their negative view of the rise of the West.

Chapter 4 of his book gets into a new section – what he calls the "Not-so-Dark Ages." He reviews the fall of Rome from the previous chapter and reminds his readers that this event was actually the most beneficial thing that happened for the rise of Western civilization because it unleashed so many substantial and progressive changes. The disunity that came about after the fall of Rome enabled extensive, small-scale social experimentation and unleashed creative competition among hundreds of independent political units, which, in turn, resulted in rapid and profound progress. This certainly applies to today as Obama and his leftist friends want to impose a large, centralized, bureaucratic government on the United States. The result will not be pretty.

Stark says the idea of the "Dark Ages" as given to the years 500-1200 A.D. was a myth made up by 18th-century intellectuals determined to slander Christianity and to celebrate their own wisdom. He lists old as well as modern historians who offered this myth. A few names will probably be familiar –Voltaire, Rousseau, Edward Gibbon, Bertrand Russell, Charles Van Doren, William Manchester. Stark says that, despite these glittering names, serious historians have known for decades that the term "Dark Ages" is a complete fraud.

Good things happened after the fall of the Roman Empire. Towns that arose or survived were centers of trade and manufacturing. It's true that the luxury trade may have declined, but there was far more European trade after the fall. Studies based on skeletons discovered belonging to this time have found that people ate very well, got lots of meat, and grew larger than people had during the days of the Roman Empire. During this time there was a proliferation of European political units, which offered people a chance to move to more desirable ones offering more liberty or opportunity, and it provided for creative competition. Notice again that Stark comes back to the idea of small units being preferable to one large, dominating political body. Are you listening, Obama? Nah . . .

But probably the most important feature Stark points out is what great innovation took place during these supposedly Dark Ages. I won't spend time on each of these, but Stark discusses many areas in which innovation took place – agriculture, wind and water power, transportation, manufacturing and trade, high culture, warfare. So, Stark says, we should get rid of the myth of barbarians swarming into the Roman Empire and destroying civilization. Here's what he has to say: "In terms of some technologies such as metallurgy, the people of the North were well ahead of the Romans. They had cities. They had extensive trade networks. And when their turn came, they launched a post-imperial era of progress."